Eugene, Springfield and Lane County First Time Home Buyers are running out of time to take advantage of the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit of $8,000. I have said it several times, and if you don’t want to believe me, take a look at what CNN Money has to say, exactly the same thing, maybe with a bit more urgency, in their recent Special Report.

Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer had this to say:

The bad part: It ends on Dec. 1.

Because it usually takes around 90 days to close on a house after a contract is signed, buyers have very little time left to act. As of Thurs., Aug. 27, there were only 96 days left before the credit ends.

Additionally, the article pointed out that in some areas, many of the prime properties had already been snapped up. We are getting reports of increased sales in many areas around the U.S. and it appears that this is also happening in Lane County. There are a lot more pending sales from what I am seeing. Also, Alpine Mortgage Planning is sponsoring a series of First Time Home Buyer seminars, the first of which takes place Thursday. Follow this link for all of the information about the seminars. Alpine has promoted a challenge to close 125 First Time Home Buyer loans before the expiration of the program.

I would also like to point out that many people think they can take advantage of the tax credit on a short sale purchase. However, short sales require the approval of the lien holder and many times that approval does not come through for several months. Home buyers don’t have “several” months to work with now. There is also talk about the extension of this program, however, the bills that would do this are all in committee in the House and most bills die in committee.

Although the article focused on the U.S. as a whole, it is obvious that the Eugene, Springfield, and Lane County area are part of the same level of purchase activity. Also, talking to my Realtor® Partners, slow responses on Short Sales are the norm. However, when working on foreclosures, they are normally a lot swifter results. If you have any questions about how to proceed with getting “pre-approved,” please give me a call at 541-342-7576/541-221-3455 Cell or e-mail me.

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